The traffic in this city...

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Silverbullet
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The traffic in this city...

Post by Silverbullet » Fri Nov 13, 2015 6:36 pm

Is an absolute joke...

At least the south is anyway. How anybody can stand it I can't comprehend. My new job is closer to home than my last, but at later hours which is also the peak of rush hour (more like rush 3 hours) morning and evening. I now work 11 kilometers from home by the shortest route, and today it took me 50 minutes to get home. I think today was an exceptional case because there were multiple burst water mains (100 year old infrastructure) and crashes on the main arterials south bound (south road at Darlington, 4 lanes wide, was completely closed to south bound traffic)

But even when there are no crashes or roadworks on a bad day it can take me half an hour or more to travel those 11 kilometers when it should take 15 minutes. And honestly, I can't see it ever improving. Sure there are big upgrade projects just starting, but they are going to take so long to be finished (I think more than 5 years is a conservative estimate) that when they are done the traffic level will have increased to nullify the upgrade. Plus they are only small sections still funneling all the cars onto 1 narrow road. With urban sprawl reaching all the way to Sellicks beach now with those residents working in the city or beyond, each person in their own car, an idiot could see our roads can't handle it.

This is the sort of reason why Adelaide bothers me. Sure it is quaint and small and people like the old fasioned parts but seriously, the city has to move into the new age before it suffocates under traffic congestion...among other things.

Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant...well that's because it is. I just spent 50 minutes idling in the car park that is our roads and I could use a punching bag right about now. Before the year is out I will be riding the bike to work.
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TOONGA
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Post by TOONGA » Sat Nov 14, 2015 8:29 am

Ah yes peak hour ... what a crock, if start times were staggered, car pooling and public transport were made a better option ... eg cheaper tickets or tax breaks (yeah sure)

I could go on and on ... I lived in Trigg 23 minutes from Curtin University in Bentley when I was studying for my honours in art. if I left home at 7 am I was lucky to get to uni by 8:45am as for a parking space I was lucky to have an MY wagon :) If I left home at 6am I could drive on a near empty freeway. That was until I got to Perth when traffic slowed to 60km/h so everyone could look at the city and river as they drove over the bridge. so by 6:30 - 6:45 I was at uni. this was a problem as classes started at 9am but once my director of studies found out she had the cleaners let me into the studio so I could do my work.

Riding any sort of bike to work is a great option until some asshat runs you off the road as you don't pay road taxes.

ranting is good fun :)

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Silverbullet
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Post by Silverbullet » Sat Nov 14, 2015 8:57 am

TOONGA wrote: Riding any sort of bike to work is a great option until some asshat runs you off the road as you don't pay road taxes.
They won't be able to because they'll be stationary :mrgreen:

Should mention Adelaide doesn't have a highway or expressway into the city or around the city like most other main cities have. There is an expressway from far south of the city and ends about 20k's from the city. After that it's back on main roads never designed to deal with that volume of cars.

So if you live at Sellicks beach and work at Gepps cross (as many people do, and worse) only 25% of that journey is on a highway of some kind. Of the 3 roads that avoid city traffic one of them goes past the air port (which is bad enough) and the other is narrow and with traffic lights every 100 paces. And the last (main south road) is usually pointless even trying to travel on. Main south roads traffic chaos is legendary.
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Post by El_Freddo » Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:35 am

Time to buy up strips of housing to convert to a decent freeway system. It will be hard and costly!

Really traffic at peak hour is always going to be a problem and the solution will not be liked by everyone - if it's going to be big enough it'll probably be tolled roads. People will avoid like the plague and create worse traffic conditions nearby.

In Bendigo people are complaining about being in 10 mins of traffic. They need to drive in the Melb cbd for a week then compare the two. A local radio station even does a traffic report as if they've got a chopper in the air - it's always the same places as any local would know. It's pathetic.

Motorbike would be the go. It's legal in vic to move through stationary traffic so long as it's in the same direction you're travelling in ;) plus a small bike over here is cheap on rego and even better on fuel. That's why I've got full throttle, my little 50cc scooter for commuting :twisted:

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Post by Silverbullet » Sat Nov 14, 2015 3:26 pm

There have been some rule changes lately here regarding motorbikes in stationary traffic. I think it may even be acceptable for them to use the bike lane, I've seen plenty of people doing it. I have seriously thought about a motorbike, a 50cc scooter would be fun but no good for me as I need to travel on 80 km/h zones and up a steep hill.

I've always wanted a postie bike :rolleyes:
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Post by steptoe » Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:57 am

A 70km trip back into Jakarta last weekend was reported as taking seven and a half hours. A third of that time spent in the one spot on the road ! Feel better ??

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Post by dfoyl » Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:55 am

>It's legal in vic to move through stationary traffic so long as it's in the same direction you're travelling in

It's now legal (in Vic, as of early Nov) to move through slow-moving traffic also, as long as that traffic is doing 30km/h or less - which in bumper-to-bumper is no problem. Policing it is going to be just about impossible without a radar gun and quick reflexes. And motorcycle riders are not reknown for following road rules...
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Post by pezimm » Sun Nov 15, 2015 1:26 pm

I find traffic in any Australian capital to be pretty reasonable. Of course it gets under your skin after a while on the same boring commute. Funny how we all become experts on what needs doing in order to solve all problems.

Go to some cities in the US, Europe or any developing country and you'll see what a real traffic jam is. Especially developing countries, where lots of people get access to motor vehicles a lot quicker than governments can react and build infrastructure.

But all in all, I think it's great we're not prepared to accept traffic as is in Australia. This dissatisfaction keeps the continuous improvement going and everyone wins!
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Post by Silverbullet » Sun Nov 15, 2015 6:27 pm

steptoe wrote:A 70km trip back into Jakarta last weekend was reported as taking seven and a half hours. A third of that time spent in the one spot on the road ! Feel better ??
70 km in 7 hours, average 10 kilometers traveled in 1 hour. I traveled 10 km in almost 1 hour on Friday :eek:

I know everywhere has traffic jams and we have it good compared to some yadda yadda. It just gets to me when I'm stuck stationary for minutes at a time, move one car space, stop, wait again. In that situation I'm thinking about how absolutely useless a car is. What is the point in moving all that iron, burning all that fuel, making all that pollution when I could literally walk to my destination faster. Part of the reason why I couldn't commute in one of those monster truck big rig 4WD's and still have a clear conscience.
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Post by David D » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:23 pm

I normally have a reasonable commute from the south to the airport (largely due to the hours I work) but it only takes one issue for the whole thing to fail. Today, the boom gates on the rail crossing in Brighton failed and I was consequently late for work after spending most of the journey in first gear!

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Post by Phizinza » Wed Nov 18, 2015 8:31 pm

Try going from east Melbourne suburbs to Tullamarine during peak hour, even on the toll roads. Heavy traffic in Adelaide seems like a country drive compared.
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Post by henpecked » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:01 pm

Phizinza wrote:Try going from east Melbourne suburbs to Tullamarine during peak hour, even on the toll roads. Heavy traffic in Adelaide seems like a country drive compared.
Thats cos Adelaide IS a country town :D

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